Barb's Bridal closes its doors in downtown Hastings

Posted on Oct 21, 2013 at 8:36 a.m.

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For more than 30 years, Barb’s Bridal has offered formalwear to Hastings. Barbara Wittman of Hampton opened the business in 1990, and for the past 15 years it’s been under the ownership and management of Barbara Crisp.
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, Barb’s Bridal closed its doors for good.
“It was time for me to get out,” Crisp said. “I wanted to leave well. I wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of and I just felt that this would be the best time to leave,” she said.
The poor economy has been affecting her business since 2008, and, while the community has expanded, her clientele has not.
“I don’t think we were known enough,” she said.
While the store is officially closed, Crisp still has a few appointments to keep. She’s taking care of another wedding party this week, she’s holding onto a few gowns for customers who ordered before the closure and she’s keeping the business phone active for the next four to six months so people can still ask her questions.
Since she announced the store would close, Crisp has gotten support from her customers and her landlord. Tony Berens owns the building where Barb’s Bridal is located, as well as Berens Jewelry right next door, where he operates his own business.
“Tony Berens was absolutely wonderful as a landlord,” Crisp said.
Berens and his wife, Korinne Fick-Berens, have been supportive of Crisp’s decision to close, and she gave a special thank you to them.
“They were just incredible through all of this,” she said.
Although the bridal shop is closed, Crisp isn’t done serving Hastings. Her next endeavor will put her in the M&H kitchen. For the past six years, she’s occasionally helped out at M&H in the mornings, she said, and that business has since offered her a job managing the kitchen there.
“So I’m still serving the community,” she said.
Eventually, she said, she’d like to get back into the formalwear business by opening a tuxedo shop, but that could be awhile.
Crisp can be contacted at the same phone number Barb’s Bridal has used: 651-437-1244.
“I’m very grateful to have had 15 years serving the Hastings community,” she said. “It really has been a pleasure.”